Kevin's favourite capital of the, we'll call it, Month
(June 2014): Rabat, the capital of Morocco (no Casablanca is not the
capital of Morocco).
Morocco is known for being a fairly
calm place. Long hailed as the most stable place in the Arab world,
it is a popular tourist destination for Europeans and popular for
foreign deserty movie scenes for hollywood movies and TV shows (parts
of of Game of Thrones were shot in Morocco, if your a fan of the show
I'm sure you can guess which parts). The names of some Moroccan
cities, Tangiers, Marrakesh, Casablanca, and Fez inspire visions of
Middle Eastern splendour. Few people seems to realize that Rabat
(which few people have heard of) is Morocco's capital city. It
appears that the leaders in Rabat have done much to in the way of
promoting a relatively peaceful route from monarchical rule to
multi-party constitutional democracy (though the King of Morocco has
more in the way of power than other kings in democracies). They have
even recently made serious steps to be more inclusive of the original
Berber (or Amazigh) culture, which had suffered various spates of
repression since Morocco gained independence. Despite the fact that
a majority chunk of the population speaks the Berber tongue, only a
few years ago did it become one of the official languages of Morocco.
Though have pointed out that this appears to have been spurred by
the various protest across the region at the time (known as the Arab
Spring). It is still considered a trend in the right direction.
It is the state of Western Sahara that
causes the most international tension surrounding Morocco's
leadership. Morocco, though it is not recognized as such by the UN,
claims control of most of West Sahara and left the African Union in
protest in 1984 when the AU admitted West Sahara (called the Sahrawi
Arab Democratic Republic) as an independent state controlled by the
Polisario Front. The Front and the SADR are strongly backed by
Morocco's Eastern neighbour Algeria. The peace talks and process had
been deadlocked more or less since 1991 when the armed conflict
between Moroccan forces and SADR forces ceased. There have been a
few promising moments, always ending with one side or the other
rejecting a key agreement. There has also been a small UN peace
keeping force in Western Sahara for a number of years now (recently
renewed for at least another year). Morocco was most recently
annoyed by the latest attempt at negotiating by the African Union,
which is sending a special envoy (Joaquim
Chissano former president of Mozambique) to help settle the dispute.
International concern outside of Africa has also been growing about
the Western Sahara refugee camps as well and putting a larger spot
light on the area once more. The UNHRC recently made its concern
known and calls for international pressure to solve the dispute have
been growing. It is possible that this time around there may be some
resolution. Possibly.
